Star Wars: The Dark Lord's Trial
by Sparty the Bold
Summary: Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith, attempts a Jedi Trance. A soul nearly a millenium in age senses his presence through the Force...and confronts him. What could Master Yoda possibly have in store for Obi-Wan's old pupil?


**Star Wars: The Dark Lord's Trial**

By Sparty

_**Disclaimer: **Nah, I don't own Star Wars, but I've taken the liberty of messin' with two of its most acclaimed characters. And you know what? I enjoyed it. It was fun. George Lucas, you silly man, thanks for creating such a wonderful universe for us to toy with._

Darth Vader's mind was clear of all intruding or unwanted thoughts, and all the commotion that was the world around him became still. Every time he sat within the bivalve-like, sealed-off chamber aboard his personal flagship, the Super-class Star Destroyer _Executor_, silence reigned around him; only the whirring mechanisms of his mechanically-enhanced body could be heard. But, now, even those simple annoyances had gone, for he had allowed himself to delve deep into the Force, a Jedi trance that moved his consciousness to a higher plane.

Sith Lords normally did not exercise techniques developed mainly for users of the Light Side of the Force, thus the Dark Lord of the Sith going into a Jedi trance was more than a little unorthodox. However, Darth Vader had once upon a time been a Jedi Knight named Anakin Skywalker. Never before had he felt the need to retain this portion of his past, allowing his actions to be completely controlled by the Dark Side; maybe the recent encounter with his son had stirred up memories of another time.

Six months prior he had fought the up-and-coming Jedi Knight named Luke Skywalker on the gas mining colony called Cloud City and revealed to him that he was in fact the boy's father. In that moment, Vader felt sure that some kind of connection had been established between him and the boy. It had been clear and present in his mind, lasting until Luke made the jump to hyperspace aboard the _Millenium Falcon_. The connection had felt strange to him, yet very familiar and welcome at the same time, as if this feeling had been exactly what he was missing since...

His thoughts turned to his former life as Anakin. As the Force guided him deeper into the calm of the Jedi trance, images from his past came as clear to him as if he were reliving those moments. He was transported to another time and another place.

In a secluded place on Naboo, he stood across from Padmé Amidala, looking upon her with his own eyes, not the enhanced vision that his helmet provided. It was a secret wedding, an event that could not be made known to the public for fear of serious repercussions for both individuals due to their placement in society. Padmé was a representative of Naboo, a Senator for the Galactic Republic, and many people from all reaches of the galaxy looked up to her as a role-model. If she were found to be wed to a Jedi—the Force-wielding members of this order under oath to forgo marriage and other similar, familial attachments—her credibility as a leader would be lost.

Anakin's fate would have been arguably worse. If found out, he would be rebuked harshly and possibly removed from the Jedi Order for his behavior. All he knew was the way of the Jedi. If left to his own devices, he would be neither Jedi nor Sith; rather, it would have been something in between.

Not much longer and the beckoning call of the Dark Side would come for him.

He lingered upon the events of his wedding, remembering how he had felt that day. What exactly that emotion had been, he could not rightly recall. It was certainly hard for him to distinguish what pleasant feelings he could still feel, if there were any at all.

He looked upon his forbidden bride, and he felt that same feeling that had stirred within him so recently, a feeling that had surfaced as he had looked upon Luke, beaten and weary, stripped of his dignity and right hand as he hung over the abyss leading to the depths of Cloud City.

Somehow, though he had become deranged, more machine than man, he knew that what he had felt was none other than love. Oh, how he had loved Padmé. She died, and for so long he thought the child within her had as well. The resulting hole in his heart was such that it could not be mended, even by time; all that could fill it was the encroaching darkness.

However, once the first Death Star had been destroyed by a member of the Rebellion named Luke Skywalker, there was no mistaking the boy's heritage, especially when he learned that Obi-Wan Kenobi, Vader's own master (so long ago) had taken Luke under his tutelage to become the next Jedi.

He had a son. Luke was the last thing remaining that linked Vader to Padmé.

He let loose a silent cry of anger mixed with pain with enough power that he was certain it had radiated throughout the expanse of the Force. He didn't know how far-reaching his mental cry could have been, and he was beyond caring. All he wanted was for the anguish he felt to end, for the feeling of love to be dulled as it had in the past. He couldn't let this emotion resurface, not now. He was a Dark Lord of the Sith; he had killed all emotion long ago.

Though the reasons had been clear before, his experience just then solidified for him as to why Jedi trances were forbidden; unbidden memories and emotions would surge up unexpectedly, causing weakness within a Sith Lord. Vader was just about to cut the session short when he felt a tug in the other direction, bringing him away from reality to remain within the trance. He tried to break free again and promptly found himself boxed in by a thick, almost-tangible barrier, the likes of which a master of the Force such as himself could not penetrate.

"What?" he bellowed hollowly, reaching out with the Force to try and detect his invisible tormentor. "What manner of trickery is this? Who are you? Reveal yourself to me, and I will mercifully end your existence swiftly." Unfortunately, nothing got past the barrier, not even his tortured voice.

Within moments, he could see clearly all around him. The barrier had taken the form of a sheer stone wall that rose up for what seemed like forever, and the ground beneath was of the same material. He spun away from the wall, his cape flapping about him. Amazingly all the physics of the normal universe seemed to apply to this imaginary, Force-induced world. Behind him and away from the impassable barrier he saw what looked to be a walkway leading to the old Jedi Temple on Coruscant. Curious, Vader began to march up to the entryway, which was wide open. Strewn all over the the Temple grounds were the bodies of slain Jedi Knights and younglings—children learning the ways of the Force under the tutelage of Jedi Masters within the confines of the Jedi Temple—lightsaber wounds evident on their many corpses.

He knew who had done this, but he didn't know why he was being shown the first atrocities that he had committed as a Dark Lord.

"If you think to pull my heartstrings by revealing to me your knowledge of my past, be assured that your time is wasted; a Sith Lord feels no remorse for his actions." His mask filtered his voice, causing it to become deep and mechanical, and it echoed into the darkened temple interior. "Truly, there is nothing you can hope to accomplish by showing this to me. Whoever you are, you can't change the past. I killed the younglings, as I killed all the other Jedi that I hunted down in the subsequent years. This is who I am now. I am Darth Vader. Now, reveal yourself to me!"

He hadn't expected much in the way of an answer, and lack of a reply was exactly what he got. He continued into the inner sanctum of the Temple. The lights were very dim, and though his mask normally allowed him to see clearly in the absence of light, in this illusion of reality it was almost as if he had his normal vision again. The rooms remained very dark to him, so, as a solution, he removed his lightsaber from its hook on his waist and activated it. Its red glow lit up the rooms around him, its radiant light cast on the curved walls and artistic decorations of the Jedi Temple.

He found another bit of decorum, placed there as a wicked afterthought by Clone Troopers acting under order 66 as well as by himself: more broken and slain bodies that were scattered randomly throughout the temple. If there was any smell emanating from the dozens of Jedi corpses the Sith Lord did not know, for his mask only pumped filtered and clean air into his maimed lungs.

Vader soon discovered that his path though the Temple had been charted in advance for him by whoever had placed him here. He found rooms blocked off by locked doors, while others remained open to him, leading in one general direction, that of the Jedi Council Chamber.

After taking the turbolift up to the highest floor in the Temple's central tower, he took a cautious step into the following chamber. He kept his lightsaber out, for this room was darkened as well, the night sky of Coruscant doing little to brighten the empty room. Empty...except for a lone, tiny figure sitting in the smallest of the council chairs.

"A long time has it been, Anakin."

"That name no longer has any meaning," warned Vader, directing the end of his lightsaber towards the person opposite him...the Jedi Master called Yoda.

The Jedi pointed his small walking stick in Darth Vader's direction. "Felt your presence, I did," he continued. "A Jedi trance...for a Sith Lord, dangerous territory, that is. Now...test you, I must, for a master's duty it is, to test the student."

"The only testing is that of my patience. I should have known that the only one capable of entrapping my very mind is you, though I cannot say how much longer that can possibly last."

"Presume the limits of your powers, do not; know them, you must."

Vader lowered his helmet in a derisive look at the old alien. "Spare me your platitudes. However, I am impressed...most impressed. I believed that you had fallen long ago, but reports of your death never arrived. It makes sense—after all, who was to train young Skywalker following the death of Kenobi? And now you reveal yourself to me, proving that you yet live."

Yoda chuckled a bit at that, a diminutive, throaty sound, then got up out of his chair. "Proof? Proof, do you seek? Yes, alive I am...but I am not well. Soon, I will forever rest, but, first, stop you, I will."

"Obi-wan's goal in training Luke was to eventually defeat me. I can only guess that you furthered the boy's training for the very same purpose. Why is it that you have decided to face me yourself instead of sending your weapon?"

"Luke...not finished with his training, he was." Yoda shook his small, pale green head. "When he returns, too late will it be. Therefore, he will not be ready, when face you again, he does. Now...in his stead must I act."

Vader tightened his gloved grip on his lightsaber pommel. "I grow tired of this pointless banter with you," he growled. "You have trapped me within this mental prison, and now you intend on finishing me off. My defeat will not come easy. My skills have increased ten-fold since last we met. Believe me when I say that even you are outmatched."

At that, Yoda let loose a wild laugh that seemed to mock the very existence of the Sith Lord. A remarkably tiny lightsaber handle appeared, clasped within the triple digits of the Jedi Master's right hand, replacing his trademark walking stick. "Your move, it is. Whether I am outmatched, we shall see." His lightsaber lit up with a fierce little green blaze, mingling its glow with that of Vader's red blade.

The black-clad Sith Lord took Yoda's words as an invitation and cleared the gap between them in an instant, bringing his lightsaber down on the green-skinned Jedi. Yoda's blade was a blur of bright motion, swatting away Vader's strike as if it were nothing more than an annoying mynock. The Jedi Master immediately shifted from his defensive posture into a fierce offensive, batting away at his tall foe with twice the ferocity of a baby gundark.

Darth Vader gathered up the Force around him and pushed forcefully outwards in all directions, blowing back anything within his immediate vicinity. This caused Yoda to fly across the room and land against the transparasteel windows of the Jedi Council Chamber. Instead of crumpling like a rag doll upon impact, Yoda landed gracefully with his feet against the window and sprang off it like a rubber ball, back towards his opponent. In midair, he began to twist himself in a corkscrew, his small green lightsaber held extended towards the Dark Master.

Vader prepared for the airborne Yoda and crouched low as he flew overhead. The Jedi's lightsaber was spinning wildly towards the Sith Lord, and even though Vader had ducked, the green blade managed to cut his jet-black cape clean off his shoulders.

With a mechanical growl, Vader rose back to his full height and twisted around to face his assailant, but the little Jedi Master had vanished from sight. "Have you taken to cowardice now? Of course, it makes sense. You _have _been in hiding all these years; therefore, fleeing is only natural to you." Silence answered him in the empty council chamber. He stalked out of the room and returned to the turbolift that had originally brought him up from the lower levels of the Temple. However, the lift did not descend, rather, it rose higher. Vader knew that there was nothing above the level of the Jedi Council Chamber, yet he distinctly felt the lift ascend to heights unknown.

When the round platform finally came to a rest, he stepped out of lift shaft and into a completely different place. No longer was he in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, rather he was back on Cloud City in the carbonite-freezing chamber. Only six months prior, he had faced off against his son in this very room. He had attempted to force him into the central freezing pit to encase him in carbonite, making him a prize for Emperor Palpatine. Luke had evaded capture, and a long battle between father and son had ensued. How was it that Yoda could recreate a place he had certainly never visited? Had he discovered how to draw forth images from the Sith's own mind?

"A hard memory for you, this is," came the voice of Yoda, echoing throughout the dimly-lit chamber. Vader scanned the room for a glimpse of the small Jedi Master, and soon located him sitting atop a battery droid, playing with his deactivated lightsaber.

"What are you trying to prove?" demanded the Sith Lord. "You trap me in order to defeat me, and yet think to toy with me?"

"Sensed a change, I have." Yoda jumped off the droid and lit his lightsaber again. "A flicker of hope, I feel. Yes, in the Jedi Council Chamber, felt it in you, I did."

"No. You are wrong. I once thought you were wise, Master Yoda, but now I fear that you have become an old fool." Yoda merely allowed a smirk to hop across his wizened face upon hearing this comment, nonplussed that Vader though him a fool. The Sith Lord, annoyed, continued to berate the small alien. "Hope is for the weak. If I were to hope for anything, it would be for your imminent defeat, nothing more." With a flick of his wrist, Vader sent his activated lightsaber spinning in a horizontal arc towards the small figure before him. Yoda deflected the airborne blade with his own, activating it in the split second it took for the Vader's to reach him, but the Sith's assault did not end there. The red lightsaber struck again and again, remaining in the air the entire time. Yoda was quick as ever, dodging and parrying the blows expertly. For a nine-hundred year-old being, he sure was quick on his feet.

Darth Vader also had to remind himself how they weren't actually fighting in the real world.

Yoda had grew bored with defending himself from a floating lightsaber, so he reached out with his own Force abilities and took hold of Vader's blade. Before the Sith Lord could counteract the interference, the Jedi Master sent it flying in a bee-line straight towards Vader's chest. He quickly twisted his torso to the side just as the blade was about to impale him, and he even managed to snap his hand out quickly enough to grab hold of his weapon's pommel, retrieving it from mid-air before it could sail further past him.

This had created just the diversion that Yoda desired. The small Jedi used a well-placed Force tug on Vader's feet, causing him to trip up and fall flat on his back. Yoda was upon him in an instant, hammering down on him with his small green lightsaber. The Sith Lord held up his own blade and blocked the Jedi Master's barrage, but the onslaught kept him effectively pinned to the ground.

Vader grew anxious, knowing that he needed to give himself some leverage with which to operate, which would allow him a chance to return to this feet. While he blocked Yoda's assault with his lightsaber, he balled his left hand into a fist and slammed it against the Jedi Master as he came in for another attack. Yoda was knocked aside, the black fist catching him unaware, and Vader rose to his feet, after which he instantly raised his glowing blade high to bring it down on the stunned figure below him.

Yoda quickly sent out a small, well-placed Force Push that sent the Sith Lord back a step. In that moment the Jedi Master was able to spring back to his feet. "That feeling within you—remains, it does," said Yoda, ever persistent in his claims. "Against your current master, your heart goes. Interesting. Much more to you, there is, than first meets the eye."

"Stay out of my head!" screamed an anguished Vader, swinging his lightsaber in a wild arc towards his diminutive opponent. "You know nothing of the pain I have endured, of the betrayal and loss that I have suffered."

"Know I nothing of loss?" countered Yoda, jumping high to reach the exhaust cables above Vader. He sat down on a thick cord that drooped towards the ground. "For eight hundred years have I trained Jedi, Anakin. To none else does the loss of a student compare."

"Everyone dies, a fact I am well-acquainted with."

"Death?" Yoda grunted in amusement. "Death is not loss. When lose a student, I did, always to the Dark Side it was. But my greatest loss, Anakin—you, it was."

"Enough!" Vader slashed the cable that Yoda had been sitting on, sending a thick blast of carbonite exhaust out of one of the severed ends. Yoda had jumped off safely, landing about seven meters in front of the Sith Lord.

Vader was composing himself for another attack when the entire structure began to shake. Explosions rocked the room they were in, and Vader watched in utter amazement as Cloud City began to fall apart all around him. Giant slabs of metal fell from their placements and began to drift off to the cloudy surface of the gas giant Bespin far below. Vader himself was falling, and as he looked frantically about, Yoda was nowhere to be seen. He fell closer and closer to the orange-tinted clouds, and soon he was enveloped entirely within them.

In the next instant, and much to Vader's surprise, he found himself back in his private chamber aboard the _Executor_. It took a moment for the reality of the situation to sink in for the Sith Lord, but he soon suspected that he had become free of Yoda's mental prison.

Vader hit the release switch for his personal reflection pod, and it opened in much the same manner as a clam shell would come apart. He stood, allowing himself a smile from beneath his death mask. Somehow, he had broken free of Yoda's grasp. He vowed to never again attempt a technique utilized only by users of the Light Side of the Force.

He began to exit his chamber when he heard the familiar hiss of a lightsaber being activated. He slowly turned his head and looked to see the figure of Yoda standing squarely on Vader's seat in the double-shelled pod.

"Easy to escape me, it is not. Your heart's desires...seen them, I have. Known to me is the light, which you still desire."

Vader reached for his lightsaber, but it was no longer hooked to his waist. He looked to the Jedi Master and saw him holding the black and silver weapon in his other hand. "Lost something, you have it would seem. Lowered your defenses, you have." The Sith reached out to manipulate the Force and quickly pull his weapon out of Yoda's small hand, but either the alien's grip was incredibly strong, or Vader couldn't command the Force at the moment.

Before the Dark Lord could try any other Force techniques to test his abilities, Yoda chuckled and said. "Give it back to you, I will. But, first, we must eat."

Confused, Vader only stared quizzically at the ancient Jedi Master from behind his mask. As if on cue, when Yoda finished speaking, Darth Vader's personal chamber dematerialized, and what looked to be a mud hut in the middle of a dense swamp came into focus instead. Inside burned the light of a candle, and Vader could see that the small Jedi Master was already within the small structure.

"Come in, come in," beckoned Yoda. "Good food, come."

Darth Vader, furious that the old Jedi was continuing to play his little mind games, sent a focused blast of the Force slamming into the side of the mud hut, which effectively knocked a gaping hole in its wall. Satisfied that his powers now seemed to be intact, he bent low and stepped through, but, instead of being greeted by a hostile host, Yoda was offering him a small wooden bowl of what looked to be a kind of stew.

"Have you gone mad in your years of solitude?" asked the bewildered Sith Lord, having to squat unceremoniously to fit within Yoda's tiny hut. "I am here to fight you, not dine with you. Besides...as I currently am...I cannot eat this."

Yoda threw Vader a sideways glance. "Yes, yes, perhaps a little crazy, I have become. But, to fight me? Your reason for being here, that is not. No...one final lesson to teach you, I have."

Vader dropped the bowl of stew to the ground in disgust, spilling its warm contents down by his dusty, black boots. "You claimed that you came to defeat me, for Luke was not ready to face me, untrained as he was."

"Untrained, yes. But ready to face you now, he is. Depends upon you, it does."

"I fail to comprehend your cryptic words."

Yoda waved his hand and the hut interior faded away, but the swampy background remained. This time, Vader found that they were standing right in front of the entrance to a dark cavern. It seemed to go far back and deep into the ground. He could feel a familiarly tantalizing sensation emanating from within that only Sith Lords and Dark Jedi embraced.

"That place," muttered Yoda. "Strong it is in the Dark Side of the Force. In you must go."

Suddenly, a chill crept down Darth Vader's back. In that instant, the Dark Side was no longer a thrilling sensation and instead became thick and choking to him. "My lightsaber," uttered Vader, looking from the cave entrance back to Yoda. "Give it to me."

The Jedi Master handed him the smooth metal cylinder. "Your weapon," Yoda softly shook his head, "you will not need it."

Darth Vader turned back to the dark opening and hung his lightsaber back on its hook. "I will be the judge of that," he said in reply. He thought for a moment of unhooking his weapon and surprising the small Jedi Master with a quick and fierce attack, but the cave of darkness held his intrigue over his desire to slay his foe. Holding his murderous desires for later, he boldly marched straight into the forbidding cave.

As he descended the murky depths of the ancient swamp cavern, he could feel the sensations of the Dark Side growing ever stronger. It was more overwhelming than even the presence of his current master, Darth Sidious, the Emperor Palpatine.

Eventually he came to a hallway carved completely out of the bedrock. Here, the Dark Side of the Force seemed to be centralized, emanating from something unseen, but more evil and dreadful than even a Dark Lord of the Sith could have ever imagined. He stepped into the hall and cautiously made his way down it, grabbing for his lightsaber and holding it in his gloved right hand.

He could see down the length of the corridor, able to see clearly the figure who stood at the other end.

"Luke," breathed out Vader, recognizing the distinct boyish looks of his son. The feeling he had rediscovered at the start of his Jedi Trance returned, and it caused him a moment of hesitation, his thumb resting lightly upon his weapon's activation switch.

"Father," said Luke mockingly, a devilish grin apparent on his scarred face. He held a newly-constructed lightsaber in a mechanical hand that had replaced the one Vader had cut off. "Nice of you to drop by."

"Why are you here in such a place?" queried the Sith Lord.

Luke cocked his head to the side. "Don't you realize it yet, father? It is our destiny to fight, and I shall be the victor, to take your place by the side of the emperor."

"That...is very unlike you, to wish for such things."

Without another word, Luke activated his lightsaber, a green glowing blade springing forth from the handle's emitter, and he charged Darth Vader full on. Vader didn't think...he only acted. He turned his own blade on, and ran forth to meet his son halfway down the hall.

Their lightsabers met, but only briefly. The force of Vader's lightsaber connecting with Luke's caused the latter to fly from the young man's grasp, spinning it wildly down the hall from whence he had come. Luke continued to smile fiendishly and just stood there in front of his father, hands to his sides and palms facing outwards in defeat.

"Kill me," rasped Luke, his voice taking on a sinister tone. "I am unarmed. Strike me down and fulfill your own destiny; there can be only one Skywalker to serve the Emperor."

Vader raised his lightsaber in preparation to slay Luke, but the boy's diabolical grin made Vader's blood run cold. The Sith Lord made a quick decision and instead kicked his son square in the chest, knocking him onto his back..

"Kill me!" screamed Luke, raising up on his elbows. "Kill me! Kill me! Do it! Kill me now!"

Vader hesitated once more. He walked slowly up to Luke, but his saber was held low to his side instead of poised for an attack. As he neared his son, a maniacal laugh began to escape the young rebel's lips, mildly at first, barely noticeable as a even a chuckle, but it grew to become a raucously wild cackle.

"You can't do it," mocked Luke, cutting off his laughter with a sneer. "You can't kill your own son. How can you call yourself a Sith Lord?"

Vader deactivated his lightsaber and hung his helmeted head. He dropped heavily to his knees, breathing haggardly. "You're right," admitted the Dark Lord in absolute defeat. "I can't do it." With that, Luke's image faded from Vader's view, as did the cave around him. The swamp disappeared entirely and the Sith Lord found himself back in the Jedi Council Chamber, only this time, something was different.

"Your true form, granted you are." Yoda stood before him, walking stick in hand again. The Jedi Master nodded solemnly then gestured towards him, as if telling him to take a look at himself.

Vader gasped in shock. As he looked down at himself, no longer was he garbed in the mechanical body suit that kept him alive, nor was he wearing the death mask that he had hid behind for so many years.

His hands were bare and flesh-colored, no longer replaced by the machines that had served as limbs for the past twenty-one years. His hair had returned, shoulder length and full. He also was wearing the traditional garb of a Jedi: brown flowing robes with off-white pants and tunic underneath. He looked with his blue eyes to the ancient Jedi Master, tears beginning to well up from the joy he allowed himself to feel, gathering renewed strength in opening himself up to emotions long suppressed by his dark desires.

"The test, you have passed," Yoda said with a smile. "Darth Vader, no longer you are. Welcome back, Anakin."

"How...how is this possible?" queried Anakin, a little bemused at the turn of events. "What does this all mean?"

"Broken free, you have. The love you have for your son, turned you it has. Now, one obstacle remains. Only to me this day have you proven yourself, but one person remains...he it is who you must show your true self."

"Luke," said Anakin with a nod. "So it shall be."

Yoda returned the nod. "So it shall be."

* * *

"Lord Vader. Lord Vader, are you there? Please respond."

Darth Vader came abruptly out of the Jedi trance, and was instantly aware that Admiral Piett was attempting to reach him on his personal comm. Once again, he was in the double-shell pod in his chambers. He pushed the release switch to allow it to partially open up, revealing a large screen to his front. The visage of the middle-aged Imperial Admiral could be seen, waiting expectantly for Vader's response.

"Ah, good," continued Piett, relieved. "I have called to inform you that we have come out of hyperspace, and we are right on schedule."

Vader was now aware that the mental games that Yoda had played with him were finally over. No more tricks: he was once again back to reality. "Very good, Admiral. Is my shuttle prepared?"

"Yes, Lord Vader. The engines are on standby at this very moment. I wish you luck on your stay aboard the Death Star."

Vader almost caught himself saying "Thank you" in return, but he quickly shut down the comm system before delivering this kind verbal gesture. It was unlike him to be pleasant towards anyone, even if it _was_ Admiral Piett, a man who had earned the respect of the Dark Lord of the Sith for his admirable work and quality performance while serving under him.

The experience with Master Yoda had shaken him. His resolve to remain a Sith Lord had now forever been shattered, and he wasn't sure how much longer he would be able to put up the charade as a being of evil. The seed of light had been planted during the encounter with his son in the depths of Cloud City, and it had fully blossomed since, his trial in the swamp cavern fully attesting to this fact. He wasn't exactly sure what had happened in there, but the experience had undoubtedly helped change him forever.

Still, he was trapped in his accursed half-mechanical body. For a little longer, the name Darth Vader would be his, but the time to relinquish his title as a Dark Lord of the Sith was quickly coming to its close. He longed to be Anakin once more.

He would have plenty of time to ponder his new path in life as he oversaw the tedious construction of the new Death Star.

The End

_**Author's Ending Note: **I really hoped you liked this story. It's probably one of the better stories that I've ever written, and I hope you readers feel the same way. I hope I was also able to shed some more light on what Darth Vader was going through at the time, how the inner struggle to overcome the Dark Side was finally coming to an end, the Light Side taking over once more within him. There are hints of this happening in the book "Shadows of the Empire", and I thought I could use this story to expand upon that, while using one of the coolest Star Wars characters ever, Yoda, to guide him through this little journey._


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